Persistent eczema leads to both impaired growth and food allergy: JECS birth cohort

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260447
• Publication Date: 2021-12-01T18:32:45Z
• Authors: Kiwako Yamamoto-H...; Yuichi Suzuki; Limin Yang; Mayako Saito-Abe; Miori Sato; Hidetoshi Mezawa; Minaho Nishizato; Noriko Kato; Yoshiya Ito; Koichi Hashimoto; Yukihiro Ohya
• Keywords: Male; 2. Zero hunger; Science; Q; R; Eczema; Infant; Overweight; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Child Development; 0302 clinical medicine; Japan; Child, Preschool; Medicine; Body Size; Humans; Female; Food Hypersensitivity; Research Article

Skin inflammation leads to altered cytokine/chemokine production and causes systemic inflammation. The systemic mechanism of atopic dermatitis (AD) is recognized to affect systemic metabolism. This study aimed to examine the relationship between early-onset persistent eczema and body weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), in addition to food allergy in a birth cohort among infants. This study design was a nationwide, multicenter, prospective birth cohort study—the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS). Generalized linear models were fitted for z scores of weight, height, BMI, and food allergy to evaluate the relationship between eczema and these outcomes for infants at age1, 2, and 3 years. Persistent eczema was negatively associated with height at the age of 2 years (estimated coefficient, −0.127; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.16 to −0.095) and 3 years (−0.177; 95% CI, −0.214 to −0.139). The same tendency was also observed with weight and BMI. Early disease onset at younger than 1 year and persistent eczema had the strongest association with development of food allergy at age 3 years (OR, 11.794; 95% CI, 10.721–12.975). One phenotype of eczema with early-onset and persistent disease creates a risk of both physical growth impairment and development of food allergy. Infants who present with the early-onset and persistent type of eczema should be carefully evaluated daily for impaired physical growth and development of food allergy.